4 Big Tech Stocks on Traders' Radars - views

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. That's especially true now that earnings season is officially underway. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

Shares of Vodafone Group (VOD) are up big today after news that Verizon Communications (VZ) could pay as much as $130 billion for the 45% of Verizon's wireless business that Vodafone owns. The possibility that the deal could be completed this week is spiking shares of VOD by as much as 8% in this afternoon's trading, as investors salivate over a balance sheet flush with cash.

From a technical standpoint, things don't get much better than Vodafone: shares of the UK-based phone carrier gapped up to a new high this morning on the news. Making new highs is significant from an investor psychology standpoint because it means that everyone who has bought shares in the last year is sitting on gains. As a result, the "back to even" mentality is less of a concern than it would be for a name with a higher proportion of shareholders sitting on losses.

Investors who aren't risk-averse may want to consider jumping in here; just keep a tight stop in place.

There are two parties in the Verizon Wireless deal -- and I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Verizon. After all, the communications giant is one of the most heavily traded names on the NYSE today thanks to the possibility that it could own 100% of its cash cow mobile business.

Shares are up close to 4% in today's session on the possibility that VZ could finally settle the issue -- but there's no two ways about it: $130 million is overpaying for what amounts to 45 million subscribers. Top rival AT&T (T) owns its entire 100-million subscriber network, and its market capitalization is just $180 billion, including its entire landline business.

In short, the deal isn't even close to a bargain -- but at least it's close to being over and done with. Technically, VOD is also the more attractive of the two. VZ has been in a downtrend since the start of May, something that even today's pop can't come close to changing.

Micron Technology (MU) has shown some of the strongest consistent relative strength since the start of the year, up 115% since the calendar flipped over to January. The $14 billion flash memory maker has also consistently been one of the highest-volume stocks on the Nasdaq -- and today is no exception. Shares of MU are bouncing with the broad market today.

From a technical standpoint, MU is currently forming an ascending triangle setup, a bullish pattern with resistance above shares at $15 and uptrending support to the downside. Basically, as shares bounce in between those two technical levels, they're getting squeezed closer and closer to that $15 level. When and if $15 gets taken out, traders have their buy signal. If you decide to jump in MU, just keep a tight stop in place.

The social network has been drawing huge trading volumes in recent weeks, especially after shares broke above their $38 IPO price, a move that's calmed down some of the once-panicked early buyers. Now strong technicals are spurring a possible move even higher. FB has a minor resistance level at $42, a price level that shares should be able to overcome without too much trouble.

When and if that $42 breakout happens, it makes sense to be a buyer in FB. Relative strength looks impressive in FB right now, and that suggests traders should be able to play it for the next couple of months.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.